Boy, do I get tired of listening to how blameless Israel has a right to defend itself against rocket attacks launched from Gaza. Is there a federal statute prohibiting any member of the American political or journalistic class from mentioning that Gaza for more than a year has been subjected to a blockade that prevents its people, including its children, from getting needed food and medicine? What about the illegal forty-year occupation, the expanding settlements, the restrictions on travel and the check points where people suffering under the occupation are routinely humiliated by Israeli soldiers? Why does the right to defense belong only to Israel?
The bombing campaign against Hamas in Gaza is continuous with Israeli policy through the years and is concisely summed up by the execrable Marty Peretz, who in The New Republic celebrates the destruction and killing before concluding: "don't fuck with the Jews." There you have it. No plan, just a posture. How is it working?
I wholly endorse the Glenn Greenwald column that brought to my attention Peretz's stupid swagger.
Yes, Hamas is despicable. But why does it not matter to anyone that Israel's "strategy" for dealing with its enemies is a manifest failure, an ongoing disaster?
Comments